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Virginia voter id bill, id card for everyone

Virginia, like many other states during past 2 years, has passed voter id legislation. The law requires to produce identification in order to cast a ballot in elections. Virginia different than most states which passed similar legislation has a broader scope of accepted documents and doesn’t require photo identification. The list of documents eligible for voting include Social Security cards, Virginia DMV issued driver’s license, Virginia non-driver photo id card, a copy of a current utility bill, bank account statement, government issued check, a paycheck showing the voter’s name and home address, or a valid Virginia college student ID card.
Another difference between Virginia and other states implementing new election came up when the Governor Bob McDonnell signed the bill. He ordered that every registered Virginia voter would receive a free voter id card. While the action addressed bill opponents on voter discrimination grounds it raised high cost concerns. The operation of sending the cards approximately 4.7 million voters registered in Virginia is estimated to cost $1.3 million.
Virginia unique solution to make sure nobody is excluded from voting due to law change sets a precedence in voter id bill push. While costly it might help to defend the legislation in the court should it be sued.